Younger Canadians Not Interested In Raising Families In Condos: Study

A picket fence and a backyard are still the gold standard, even for millennials.

An aerial view of homes in a suburban development. A new survey for realtor Sotheby's finds the vast majority of young urban families prefer detached homes to higher-density forms of housing.

Canada's young families are giving up on the dream of owning a single-family home, but it's not out of a desire to live an urban high-rise life — the cost has simply become too prohibitive.

That's the key takeaway from a new study carried out by Sotheby's International Realty Canada, which found that, if money were no object, 83 per cent of young families would buy a detached home as opposed to any other type of housing. Only 5 per cent prefer condos.

"The popular perception is that people in modern families have typically preferred multi-unit and city centre locations, when in fact what the report shows is if price were no object, they would prefer single family homes," said Brad Henderson, president and CEO of Sotheby's Canada.

Watch: This is Canada's most expensive condo (story continues below)

The study looked at what it called "modern urban families" — those where the eldest adult is 20 to 45 years old — in Canada's four largest metro areas: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. It found that, for homebuyers, space is the top priority.

"Families placed the highest priority on achieving 'value per square foot' in their actual home purchased over design, layout and other feature considerations," the report noted.

It found that 43 per cent of families who own property but not a single-family home have given up on ever buying one. Another 18 per cent plan to buy a detached home in the city centre, while 21 per cent have set their sights on the suburbs.

Earlier on HuffPost Canada:

"There is going to be a fairly significant intergenerational transfer of wealth over next 10 to 15 years and that will help arrest some of this trend," Henderson said. He expects most people to spend their inheritance on real estate or paying off debt.

Of course, inheritance will only help those whose parents have something to bequeath.

Some economists have raised the alarm about the growing reliance of homebuyers on their parents' wealth, arguing it could create a new kind of aristocracy, where only those people whose families already own real estate can afford to step on the property ladder.

Happy with their homes

But while Canada's younger families may be giving up on detached home ownership, they're not giving up their confidence in the real estate market. Seventy-eight per cent say they expect their real estate to appreciate as fast or faster than other investments.

And while many condo-dwellers would prefer to be in detached homes, they aren't necessarily disgruntled about their living situation. Ninety-three per cent said they were "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with their living situation.

The report relied on a survey of 1,743 families in the four metro areas, carried out by the Mustel Group. The survey took place from Aug. 9 to Sept. 6 of this year.